Publication of Eighteenth Century Poetry
All the publications just referred to were of works which came from a more or less remote period. No serious attempt had been made to publish the more recent works of the eighteenth-century poets, written in the still living language of the people, and still preserved by popular tradition. This defect was remedied by the Gaelic League. From the first it set itself to provide a popular literature, and when it had succeeded in securing an established position, it proceeded to issue a number of modern texts. In the years following 1900, its Publication Committee, with P. H. Pearse as its moving spirit and Hon. Secretary, issued in rapid succession a series of volumes of the poetry of the eighteenth century. Volumes of poems and prose collections in the idiom of the people have also been issued by various individuals, and numerous scattered pieces have appeared in national and local journals.
New School of Writers.—This output of popular literature was accompanied by a revival of original literature. The creative spirit that had lain dormant for nearly a century began to manifest itself once more. The revival of the language, due to the activities of the Gaelic League, stimulated the intellect of the Gael, and at the same time created a public for it. New writers arose on all sides, to many of whom the language was one which had been acquired by study and assimilated by enthusiasm.
The new school wrote consciously under an external impulse, and under conditions in striking contrast to those under which the earlier writers had worked or sung. Consequently the new literature took a modern form, which differed from that of any previous period. Some of the writers followed the styles of the later ” classical ” writers : others used the every-day idiom of the people. Only a small proportion of their productions were in poetry. Most were in prose, and nearly all were in forms hitherto unknown. Novels, short stories, literary criticism, narrative history, dramas, and even operas were a new feature in Irish literature. The relative or absolute merit of this literature cannot yet be properly estimated —its future, and the fame of its creators, are alike in the hands of the new generation of the Irish people.
